There are many work scenarios when checking availability is important. Supervisors and schedulers often need to know who is free for a job or task. Coworkers also need to see each other’s availability. Typically, you’ll check the calendar to find this information. You might search for an available team to assign a new job. Or, you might look for a specific person’s free time for a meeting. With Teamup, this process becomes easier using color-coding.
With Teamup’s color-coding each person or team has a sub-calendar with its own assigned color. This setup allows you to quickly see when someone is available or not. Here are two methods to show availability with a color-coding.
Method 1: Unavailable time is explicit
With method 1, events show unavailable time; clear space means availability. Users who need availability have to find it in the open calendar space when there are no other events scheduled. It’s useful for staff calendars and in many booking situations, when a reservation (event) shows that a resource is already booked. Users need guidelines with this method so they don’t book appointments back-to-back (leaving no buffer or open time), or schedule resource usage outside of available hours.
Workplace training
Supervisors need to see staff availability in order to schedule sessions and ensure that each employee is able to attend mandatory training. Typically, method 1 is used for this type of staff calendar. For example, in an office environment, staff members all work when the office is open, e.g. 9am to 5pm on weekdays. Each staff member can add their events such as meetings, client calls, or other items to their own calendars; the events indicate times when they’re not available for other things, like training sessions.
Project coordination
When coworkers are collaborating on a project, they often need to see each other’s availability to plan meetings, client presentations, strategy sessions, and reviews. Using method 1, each person can add their own events, meetings, and schedule obligations to their own calendar. Coworkers can look for “open time” on each other’s calendars to schedule a meeting.
Appointment booking
Service providers need to track their own availability, as well as availability of rooms or special supplies, so they can schedule client appointments without conflicts. Method 1 works well here; whenever a service provider books an appointment, they add it to the calendar.
Or if they have a personal obligation, they can add an event marked “Unavailable” or “Reserved” to indicate that the time is not open. Rooms or supplies can be booked by adding an event to the calendar for the time of the booking. So when a service provider looks at the calendar, they look for open spaces in their own schedule and for the room or other equipment they might need.
Method 2: Available time is explicit
With method 2, an event means availability. An event might indicate an open slot for appointments, someone’s availability for a volunteer shift, or blocks when a resource can be reserved for use. This method provides more control for the person scheduling availability. Users have to choose from the events shown on the calendar; there’s not an option to book resource use or make an appointment outside of those events.
Shift planning
Many industries rely on shift scheduling. Managers need to track employee availability to be able to assign shifts and make sure the schedule is covered. Using method 2, employees can “claim” or request a shift by adding an event to the calendar next to the shift time, as shown here:
Office hours
Professors and advisors often maintain particular office hours when they’re available for student consultations, career counseling, or help with assignments. Using method 2, a professor can create events for available office hours.
Event signups work well in this scenario, too. The professor can set a maximum number of signups for each office hour event and let students sign up for a slot. When the maximum number is reached, no more signups will be allowed for that office hour.
An academic department could have a calendar with all their staff members’ office hour availability. Each professor or other staff member could add their own events and check student signups. The students would have just one calendar to check for the whole department. The calendar could even be embedded in the department’s webpage.
Show and track availability
To set up availability tracking, create a sub-calendar to represent each person or team. You can choose which color to assign to each calendar. Then decide which method works best for your scenario to track and show availability: see more details here.
